Friday, December 14, 2012

no staying snow yet tho. it has been absolutely gorgeous this past few days.

here's a yummy salad - tangerines, pomegranate seeds, kiwi and defrosted blueberries that jambaloney picked in august - can you say anti-oxidants? with a very light dressing of oil, apple cider vinegar (with the mother), unpasteurized honey, fresh ginger and tons of fresh garlic...lots of good stuff to keep you healthy!

and of course - our weekly bulgogi. the side dishes change with each bulgogi meal...but we have it once a week. letting the meat sit in it's marinade for 3 days is actually a method of fermentation. and we all know how good fermentation is for us, right?

check out these skies. yes - this is what we look at instead of tv. crazy huh? ya, but we're crazy kind of people.

wow eh? even when it's overcast and grey here...it's still amazingly beautiful. we take time each day to thank our Creator for this beauty.

yum. pasta with olive oil, butter, parsley, a ton of garlic - like a ton - and parmesan. and that's our last tomatoe of the season. thank you little tomatoes for lasting this long. we enjoyed growing, harvesting and eating every one of you. we should have tomatoes again in june. fingers crossed.

poor Helga hasn't had a trip to the river in weeks - she's getting stir crazy. so we took her down. how beautiful eh? it's hard to not feel thankful all of the time.

here's the little engine that brought Helga to the river. she rode on the back and held on to jambaloney. me? i had to walk down. jeesh! oh and walk back up. double jeesh!

Helga was climbing trees, i was enjoying the sky, and jambaloney was getting our boats all set for winter.

oh my gawd! is there anything better than home-made chopped liver pate, some onion bagel pieces, a hard boiled egg, some cheese, some apple, some home-fermented beets, some olives and some sweet pickled onions? and all on a plate? and ready to share with your baby? for your evening snack? is there anything in the world that is better than this?

i think not.

except another usual sunset. they really are all this fantastic folks. i'd upload pics of the sunsets daily if it didn't recquire so much work.

here's another frosty morning. and lots of happy birds.

they are so beautiful to watch every day. we love the birds here.

speaking of beautiful....how about some proper polish cabbage rolls? my grandmother from my mother's side, her name is Audrey Irena Polutnik. she was born in norway, her mother was polish and her father was ukranian. she served in the canadian forces during ww2. and she made some mean cabbage rolls. she taught my mother and my mother taught me.

you core a head of cabbage and then put the head in boiling water and peel off individual leaves. you cook your hamburger and your rice and then combine them. you put a bit of your hamburger/rice mixture on to each boiled cabbage leaf. you line your pan with cabbage leaves. then you put your crushed tomatoes on the leaves. add sauerkraut. sauerkraut is a must in cabbage rolls. add some tomatoe sauce that is stinkingly full of garlic. add your rolls. more sauce. a ton more sauerkraut. more sauce.

cover the top of your cabbage rolls with more leaves. more sauce. more sauerkraut. you must add sauerkraut. cover and cook for an hour at 350.

then enjoy. you can add a side dish if you like. but cabbage rolls fill all of the food groups - cabbage as your veg, tomatoe as your fruit, rice as your starch, hamburger as your meat....and tons of sauerkraut - which is a food group all on it's own.

Thursday, December 6, 2012

i am so sorry for my lack of regular posts...but i have been hit with the migraine of migraines!!! i always know to expect doozy migraines at the solstices...but the solstice isn't until december 21. not sure what that means or may portend - yuhikes! maybe the mayans were making sure that i got my doozy before the world ended? thanks mayans!

anyway, when i get the doozy migraines, i am food sensitive, light sensitive, sound sensitive, stomach sensitive and cannot be anywhere near a computer. so if i have missed your latest posts over the past 2 weeks, no worries, i am a speed reader and will catch up on all of them!

jambaloney has been holding down the fort while i am curled up in a ball under the couch with my blankie and pillow...but a man who is winterizing the cottage, digging trenches, and getting rocks and sand from the beach still needs to be fed! i crawl out from under the couch several times a day and try my best to feed him with jackhammers pounding in my head. and although i often vomit any food i eat during a doozy migraine...i still try to get some food in me. it's hard tho. but i MUST feed the man!

here's a nice light salad that makes a great lunch and uses ingredients that are seasonal:

mandarins, pomegranate seeds and romaine. the dressing is a nice, light dressing filled with antibiotics: olive oil, apple cider vinegar with the mother, un-pasteurized local honey, and tons of fresh garlic and ginger - divine!

and here's another. we get some lovely local salmon fillets here and usually cook up two 6-ouncers in a skillet or on the bbq. however, we only ever eat 1 and a half fillets. no trouble - that just means that the next day, we can have a delicious salmon salad. here's one with avacado, romaine and home-made caesar dressing - yummeh!

a hungry working man needs a good supper - how about some delicious bacon, brie, parmesan and mushroom pasta??? very filling indeed. a little parsley and some kimchee on the side.

dear sweetest sis, Helga, please forgive me. these pics uploaded wrong and this beautiful sky pic was supposed to come out first. as my head is still pounding, i am unable to re-right the pics. please forgives? i love you so much!

every single day, no matter if it is rainy or cloudy or gray - we still get spectacular skies. i love the sky here on my beautiful island!

here's a nice lunch of baked home-grown russet potatoes with butter, cheese, sour cream and bacon...with some apple and fried mushrooms - that will keep a man in a trench, eh Winston? bahahahah!

as well as some homemade macaroni and cheese...i like to use old cheddar, medium cheddar and monterey jack in my homemade cheese sauce....and tons of salt and pepper. in fact, i believe that mac and cheese is simply a vehicle for salt and pepper. jambaloney likes red pepper flakes on his.

one of the most important foods in our diet is organ meat...and we can get it really cheap here. after a long hard day of winterizing the cottage or digging more trenches - here is a nice supper of fried liver, onions, bacon, mushrooms, red mashed potatoes with the skins, some fermented beets and fermented carrots and ginger. i made myself eat some of this even tho my head was pounding.

another thing to always be sure to use in your food is a variety of spices! here is some chicken curry and edamame with more fermented beets and carrots. make sure to include homemade fermented food in at least one meal a day - your body will love you for it!

i haven't downloaded my pics from my camera but over the past 2 weeks there has been much tom young goong soup, roast and bulgogi. all of which have helped me through my migraine...and helped jambaloney with all of the outdoor work that he has been doing. i am thrilled that he is still in bed - can you believe that it is almost 9am? he is tired and needs the sleep. me - i bin up since about 3:30am, doing absolutely nothing of importance except listening to the pounding of my head.

again, i am sorry that i have been away so long. and i will get to all of your blogs. thank you to everyone who sent emails asking if i was ok - i have read them and will get to answering them in a day or two. thank you for your concern. it is much appreciated here at the Manor.

be good to yourselves for me!

EDITED TO ADD: holy moly! our 2 yr anniversary at the Manor was 2 days ago?!?!?!?!? happy 2 year anniversary Framboise Manor!!!! it feels like we have been here forever...and it feels like we just got here yesterday.

About Framboise Manor

Framboise Manor is our Bug-Out Location (BOL) that we have been living in since December 2010. As can be seen by the above picture - calling it simply a "Manor" doesn't do it justice - we bet you think it is more like an "Estate", eh?

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Who Are We?

we are jambaloney and kymber. here's a pic of us below...we look very happy and content. it's because we really are!

About jambaloney

(he's only 23 in this pic...he has 20+years of additional muscle now...if you can believe it!)

kymber here and talking about jambaloney.

i've always called him my angel. my rock. my best half. the best part of what i have always wanted to become.

he has a soul as big as the biggest mountain, he is strong, he is in incredible physical condition, he is 51 and yet most people think he is under 40. he is humble and modest, charming, gorgeous and will help anyone with anything at anytime. he never grumbles and only every now and again complains or is a tiny bit cranky (nothing that a hug can't fix!). he can cut both sides out of 70 tires in minutes, build raised beds from scrap wood that he drags out of the forest, weedwhack 800ft of our road down to the river, and haul more wheelbarrows of dirt, mulch, rocks and seaweed than is probably medically-advised. he's learned how to braid, make bread and no one makes better rice - not even the chinese. he supports my every, crazy endevour. he went 44 years without a driver's license and got his license after being trained by my crazily-wonderful french canadian friend in 2 weeks. she never stopped talking the whole time. in french.

he has biked everywhere his entire life, at one job he biked 24km EACH WAY. that's to and from! 24km to work AND 24km from work! oh and just accidentally has an honours degree in philosophy.

i believe that he is Our Lord's most beautiful and perfect creation. but i might be biased. he can very accurately shoot a ben pearson cougar re-curve from both the left and right. and his aim is dead on.

he is bow-legged and only 5'7", but has the most incredible eyes. and a tiny mole on his upper lip. he writes the most romantic "insta-poems". he tells me he loves me several times a day. he calls me "babe" and "honey". and he means it.he loves hot sauce and spicey things like cayenne and banana peppers, he buys (or now picks) me flowers, he left a lucrative, high-paying IT job and his family to follow me here to this remote little island. he builds me shelves and washes all of our laundry with me by hand.

oh and he was baptized Anglican. and was an alter boy. sheesh. somehow, through my intervention, i am turning him into a pagan-christian-fundamentalist-confuscian. look, even i can't figure that out!

the name jambaloney is a nickname that i gave him over 10 years ago. he still uses it. he can be reached at "jambaloney@gmail.com". he loves comments or emails. and he loves me.

if i were given the opportunity to wish one thing for the world - i would wish that every woman on the planet had a jambaloney. i know that i could save the world this way. i have friends who have asked me to clone him. i am trying. believe me, i am trying. one day i will perfect the science involved, and when that happens, i promise all of you a jambaloney.

i love him more than...breathing, lobster, boiled dinner, fresh bread out of the oven, bugging out, singing back up for Madonna (ok...i made that one up!), fresh sheets on the bed, a glass of red wine after a long day, sunflower seeds, lavender, growing my own potatoes, T.S. Eliot, dancing, my babies (who are really just cranky old cats!) and the Bible.

i love him more than i love Framboise Manor. and i really love Framboise Manor.

About kymber

(this pic might seem odd. trust me, it's not. 20 yrs ago kymber went shopping with a girlfriend from the military and bought this dress. then she hooked up with that girlfriend recently. they caught up through email and one day kymberz friend mentioned that specific dress. kymber said she still had it (kymber still has her prom gown for crying out loud!). the friend did not believe it. so we had to take a pic of kymber wearing the 20yr old dress for her friend. kymber always likes to add accessories...and well, we had the bunny ears laying around. ya know, cuz everyone always has pink bunny ears laying around. ok, that's it...i am out of here! jambaloney)

what can i say about kymber?? A LOT!!most of it will have to wait for blog entries ‘cuz i just don’t have enough space here to do her justice…

so i’ll have to do my best… first and foremost, kymber is my partner and i will love her forever. she is the best partner anyone could ever have, i am one lucky guy!! she is 46, she is sweet as can be, smart as a whip, super cute, exceptionally feminine, strong as an ox, honest, kind, empathetic, wise, an amazing dancer, a master wit in speaking and writing….i could go on..i will!

at 5’ 1’’ she packs a wallop – a true force of nature -she is a master gardener and chef and spent 10 years in the Canadian Military – she has done 2 tours of Alert (the north bloody-cold pole). she is a UN-certified Korean linguist and spoils our 2 cats rotten. she also spent 12yrs working in the federal government, as a communications analyst at SolGen (now PSEPC) and Fintrac. she loves nature in the true sense of the phrase..the wildflowers, insects and birds here at framboise manor keep her entranced and captivated for hours.

anyone who is her friend knows that she will stop at nothing to help and heal, dedication and loyalty are an integral part of who she is and she is dead serious about anything she puts her mind to. yet she maintains the most delicate touch and a smile on her face always, never afraid to live and love no matter where and when.

she is the most genuine human being i have ever met! and she has encouraged me to embark on the most crazy and exciting adventure i could imagine… thank you babe - i sooo love you!!!